A Life More Complete

---Chapter 27---

Bob and I settle into our seats in the back of the bar in a half booth half table spot. It’s packed so I order immediately joking with Bob that right now I’m so hungry I could eat him.

The conversation switches over to his new job because just recently there’s been some serious drama. He’s filling me in the totally animated way that only Bob can, arms flying, crazy faces to go along, all the while making me laugh like no other. It turns out that one of the girls who works with Bob got a new set of boobs, but kept denying it until one of the other girls in the office called her out on it. Chaos ensued.

“Krissy you should’ve seen them! It took everything in me not to yell, “Cat fight!” So Abby Fake Boobs, was all like, ‘Mind your own business,’ to Office Hag Laura, who was like, ‘You’re such a slut! You only got fake boobs so you can steal other people’s husbands.’ It was ghetto nasty. Girls, you’re such jealous bitches.”

Bob stops suddenly and the enthused look on his face vanishes. He begins to say something as I look over my shoulder where his eyes are focused. If words came from his mouth I don’t recall them at all. I stare for what feels like an eternity and Bob’s hand on my cheek pulls me back into the now.

“Are you f*cking kidding me?” I can’t help but lace my words with utter distain. “Did you know about this?” I hiss at Bob, right now hating him without ever hearing his answer.

“No,” he responds instantly like the good friend that he is. “I swear on everything that is holy I had no idea.” Shaking his head his eyes are wide as he takes in Melinda walking with her arm linked with Ben’s to a table on the opposite side of the overcrowded bar.

“Well, this explains everything,” I whisper shout. I begin to tap my fingers and Bob covers my hand with his. “How dare she!” This time it comes out as a shout and even with the ever-growing noise level the people nearby turn and look at me.

“Okay, okay. Settle down, killer,” Bob says infuriating me even more. “I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here, so don’t hate me, but you guys broke up. And sweetheart, take a look at yourself? You’re married and pregnant. I know baby daddy sucks right now, but you picked him.”

“You suck right now! You’re supposed to be supporting me. Come on, I know all of that, but it still doesn’t make it any less of a blow. Plus, I’m even angrier that she hid it from me. Acting all sheepish and uncomfortable when I walked in on her phone call today.”

“Sorry. I thought I’d give it a shot.” Shrugging his shoulders, he gives me the answer I’m looking for. “Hands down, she’s a bitch. Have at her,” he says with a self-satisfied grin on his face.

I take few deep breaths before I haul my still starving ass across the bar to confront the two-faced bitch that was once my best friend. I should’ve known she had it in her. When I think back to all those times she ditched me at the bar to run off and sleep with some random guy she just met. Leaving me alone knowing full well I hated taxis and would eventually have to put myself in one to get home. I could count on one hand the number of times she seemed genuinely concerned about me. It really doesn’t matter now because we are done. She crossed that line, broke that unspoken rule among friends and even worse pissed off the starving pregnant girl.

I’m pretty sure that there is smoke coming out of my ears, like a bad cartoon and if it’s not it should be. I slam my hand down on their table as soon as I stroll up on them. It takes both of them by surprise and I wish I had a witty remark, but all I can come up with is, “What a surprise!”

The look on their faces is exactly what I’d hoped for, yet Ben seems slightly less shocked to see me than Melinda. She just looks completely horrified.

“Fancy seeing the two of you here...together.” I blink waiting for a response. When neither replies within the two second window I leave open I continue. “I can’t believe my best friend would think so highly of me to shack up with my ex-boyfriend.”

Ben looks at me quickly but turns away with a small look of hurt in his eyes. He places his elbows on the table and glares slightly at Melinda, “You said you told her?” he questions. “I wouldn’t have done this if I had known she didn’t know.” Ben looks my way apologetically, but it doesn’t clear him the way he thinks it will.

Melinda leans closer to Ben and half whispers, “I was planning on it. It just...”

“It just what, Mel? It slipped your mind? Doubt it. I walked in on you making plans with him today and you had the balls to lie to my face. We’re done. I’m done with both of you!” I shout once again a little too loud.

“Let’s go Ben,” Melinda says as she rises from the table. I can feel my anger coming out in the form of tears that I have been trying to hold back. I don’t move when she stands so we are now face to face. I feel a hand on my shoulder pull me back just slightly allowing Melinda room to pass.

Looking over her shoulder at me and for the first time since my walk on the crazy side, she addresses me directly, “Luckily you didn’t make a fool of yourself in front of a bar full of people.” Her tone full of sarcasm as she walks right into a pole in the center of the bar. Sometimes it’s like the universe is on my side for once.

Bob drags me back to the table both of us laughing so hard that tears are streaming down our faces. “Classic,” he says.

“I know, right?” I respond picking up a slider and inhaling it in one quick bite. “She didn’t even look as cute as I do when I do something stupid. It’s part of my charm,” I say winking at Bob as I chew up my second slider.

“Agreed,” Bob says picking up his drink and clanging it against my water glass. “Now in all honesty, that was a hot mess. What the hell was she thinking? And him, too?”

Driving home, I have calmed down just slightly. I have time to assess the situation for what it really is. I’m upset that someone I called my best friend betrayed me like that, but the heart of problem still seems to hold firm over the fact that I harbor an unrequited love for Ben. I’m disgusted that she took my relationship with Ben and turned it into a trashy one night stand. She has no interest in Ben other than sleeping with him and moving on. I also can’t believe he’s foolish enough to fall prey to her game of hair flipping, eyelash batting, fake boobs in a push-up bra act that makes her look so desperate for attention. I want to be angry with him, but I can’t find it in me. Maybe that speaks volumes about how I feel about him.

When I pull in Tyler is still not home. I call him before I even exit the car and it goes straight to voicemail, like always. Climbing into bed I text him while my laptop starts up.

Me: Where are you? It’s after 11.

I begin to search flights to Chicago as I try to figure out how much of a hit I will take transferring my flight from Atlanta to Chicago. One of the worst things about my father dying should be his actual death, but unfortunately it isn’t. It happened to fall on the same weekend that Rachel and I were supposed to visit Maizey in Georgia.

My phone vibrates on my leg as Tyler responds to my text.

Tyler: Office

Me: I need to book flights for Thursday. You good with 8:15am?

Tyler: Flights for what?

Me: Uh...My dad’s funeral!

Tyler: Oh, yeah. I can’t go. I gotta work.

Me: I hope this is a joke.

Tyler: No joke. Can’t go.

Me: Come home. We need to talk about this.

Tyler: Busy. Talk tomorrow. Go to bef.

Me: Bef??? Seriously. Come home.

Tyler: Go to BED.

I launch my phone across the room and that’s when the tears begin to fall. I like to think that I’m emotional from the surge of excessive hormones that are running through my blood, but I know it’s more than that. The thought of returning home alone scares me to death. I haven’t heard my mother’s voice since leaving almost eleven years ago and I can feel my stomach churn as I recall the conversation. I haven’t even given it a moment to settle in with the all the drama surrounding Melinda and Ben and now having to deal with Tyler and his holier than thou attitude. They say everything happens in threes, well I guess I can call my shit storm of a day done.

I book a flight for Thursday morning and text my sister the details all the while sniffling and swiping tears before they hit the screen on my phone. Right now the last place I want to be is anywhere near my mother, not to mention the thought of identifying the dead body of my father, a man I haven’t seen since I was nine years old.

I call Bob because right now I have no one else to call. I know Maizey is crying like a baby and Rachel is acting like nothing’s wrong, so that leaves them out. Calling Gia is totally out of the question seeing it is now one in the morning. A middle of the night wake up call will send her into a panic and that’s the last thing I want to do to a mother of three who has problems of her own.

Bob answers immediately, probably because he is still sequestered to his car on the ridiculously long commute that he so willing obliged just to make me happy.

“You alright, honey?” he asks without even saying hello.

“Yeah. I just need to vent to someone right now. This shit with Melinda has me upset, and my dad dying and now Tyler is being a total dick. He refuses to fly home to Chicago with me.” It comes out whiny and I’m not surprised.

“Vent away.”

“I’m so pissed at Melinda right now I can’t even think straight. I know we’ve been over this like a million times already, but I’m just so mad. How dare she. I feel like her sleeping with Ben somehow cheapens everything I ever had with him. I loved him. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

“I’m gonna stop you right there. You know I love you, baby girl, but you are a damn mess. He’s not your boyfriend anymore. Your beef should be with Tyler. He’s the reason you’re so angry and the reason you’re obsessing over Ben. Are you really gonna stay mad at Melinda on a technicality? So, she went out with your ex. You’re married and pregnant BY ANOTHER MAN!” he shouts so loudly I pull the phone away from my ear. When I don’t say anything he begins again. “Mel is one of your best friends and I get it, what she did was shitty, but get over it. I think it’s about high time you took a look at your relationship with Tyler and ask yourself if it’s worth it.”

I can’t acknowledge his comments about my marriage because there is far too much truth in his words. “I didn’t plan on staying mad at Melinda forever. At that moment I couldn’t say, ‘I am only going to be mad at you for two weeks,’ and then walk away. I think it would’ve seemed insincere and far less dramatic. I need to let things settle down between us, but eventually I’ll talk to her again.”

“Good. I’m not sure I could have stayed neutral forever. But just so you know, I would’ve picked you if I had to choose.” I know he’s smiling, I can hear it in his voice.

“Why do you have to be gay? Right now we could be married and living a calm drama-free existence.”

“Honey, there’s no such thing. We’d have killed each other a long time ago. Do you want me to come with you to Chicago so you’re not alone? I could play the doting husband if you like?”

“You play doting husband better than my real one ever could, but no. I’ll be fine. You don’t have to come. I just never expected him to be so....”

“Heartless,” Bob says filling in my words because I don’t have the resolution to say it myself. Saying it out loud would be like admitting I failed.

“I gotta go. I’m exhausted. I’ll call you tomorrow,” I say cutting the conversation short. The thought of delving any deeper may bring me to admit my future with Tyler is unclear.

“Alright. Talk to you tomorrow. You and that baby get some rest. Love you.”

“Love you, too”